The new edition features updated biographies, as well as personal reflections on senate service, for members who responded to a questionnaire mailed out earlier this year. The questionnaire asked members to reflect on the most controversial issue they confronted in their senatorial careers, their most memorable moment, and what they deemed their most significant contribution. In addition, this year's publication has an appendix listing all Senate members from 1777 through the present session alphabetically. Finally, in an effort to pay tribute to recently deceased members of the Society, the In Memoriam section recognizes the members lost since the last meeting. Future editions can encompass anyone inadvertently missed, and we would be grateful if any omissions were brought to our attention.
The Archives would like to thank the Society of Senates Past members for their generous donations to our endowment fund. With this support, we were able fund a summer intern, Key School student Christopher Parker, who completed the historical appendix of Senate membership and began basic biographical research on early senators. Biographical Research Associate Karen Dunaway finished updating all the current member biographies, while Archives Webmaster and Editor for Electronic Publications Lynne MacAdam handled the production of this volume. The Archives continues to welcome volunteers and financial support for student interns to expand and improve upon what we have begun. Any contributions are tax deductible and will be applied directly to the specific purposes for which they are given as provided for in the legislation creating the State Archives Fund enacted in 1993.
Finally, the Archives would like to encourage members of the Society of Senates Past to continue updating our biographical files and completing the questionnaire. Please do not hesitate to contact the Archives' Director of Biographical Research, Emily Oland Squires, regarding any contributions, including family information, photographs and office-related memorabilia, that would provide a more complete and accurate account of members' careers. She may be reached at 410-260-6443 or emilyo@mdarchives.state.md.us. We would hope that the Society of Senates Past would look upon the collection of additional biographical information about its members, and the preparation of biographies in electronic form on the web, as an achievable and worthy goal. How well we remember those who represented us and what they did is closely tied to how highly government is valued and the degree to which the record of government can be improved.
Dr. Edward C. Papenfuse, Jr.
State Archivist and Commissioner of Land Patents
March 16, 2000
For further inquiries, please contact Dr. Papenfuse at:
E-mail: edp@mdarchives.state.md.us
Phone: MD toll free 800-235-4045 or 410-260-6403.
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